PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic BMI & ASCAP

90db you mentioned the big dogs get all the money and the artist gets the shaft.

It has always been this way, musicians, artists, writers, and so on do it because our passion drives us to do it -- and more often than not we have poor business skills. The publishers and the rest of the industry have excellent business skills and they take advantage of that balance to overpower the artist.

When Motown was courting us to become their first white major artist, our management and lawyers were trying to get paid. They started at 4 cents per record, then little by little the money per record wend down and down until the final amount wouldn't cover what Motown would have billed us for recording, production and promotion costs even if we sold a million copies. And that was in the days before T shirt and other merchandising add-ons.

Negotiations broke off and Berry Gordy's second choice, The Sunliners made a deal with them - I have no idea of the terms they settled with. The Sunliners changed their name to Rare Earth and cut a few for Motown. I hope they made out OK.

Authors have been exploited by the publishing companies for longer than there have been record companies. Like top 40 artists, the people who write hit book after hit book can make a great deal with the publishers, but the 'one hit wonders' of the literary world can't quit their day jobs.

I definitely feel that the songwriter deserves to get paid for his/her composition. But I think 75 years after he/she dies is extremely excessive.

I make my money performing music. I've never had a recording contract, although I did come close once. The songs I play are the tools I use to make a living, and I assume most of the venues I play in have an ASCAP license. If not I'm sure the ASCAP or BMI rep will eventually visit them.

I played that gig in the Embassy suites on Saturday. It was 2 hours away each direction. We set up before cocktail hour and didn't play until dinner. So I left the house at 2 PM after loading the gear in the van and didn't get home until 2:30 AM and then had to get the gear of of the van. There's no way I'm going to make an mp3 and send a report in.

Yesterday we did a pool party. It was close to home, but still, setting up in a tent, sweating and getting beat by the sun and the wind, worrying about the thunderstorms to the west, and tearing down after dark to the glow of golf cart headlights left us very tired. No way I'm going to make an mp3 and file the report.

A performing musician has a lot to do. In my duo: set up the gear (2 synths, 2 guitars, 3 computers, flute, sax, sound modules, PA system and dozens of cables) ... troubleshoot any problems ... do a sound check ... start playing and watching the reaction of the audience to get a good idea as to what song to call next ... and then tear down. The performing itself is both physically and mentally demanding and the setup/teardown is time consuming and physical. Reporting our playlist sounds like a great way to get the proper artists paid the proper amount of money - but I'm sorry, it's too much to ask.

There has to be a better way.

As mentioned, the industry people have the business skills, and the money to influence the lawmakers. Thus the copyright laws are definitely weighted to the advantage of the industry people and not for the artists who get crumbs off the table at best. That's why they need to be revised so that they are fair to all. But I don't see that happening any time soon.

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